The Modern Art Notes Podcast

There are just 12 days left to see the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

LACMA installed the three  portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. 

Episode No. 66 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast featured LACMA curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie talking about the installation. It’s already one of our most popular shows ever!

This is Mapplethorpe’s Self-Portrait (1983). 

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

This is Mapplethorpe’s Untitled, N.Y.C (1981), which is in the “Z Portfolio.” 

LACMA installed the three Mapplethorpe portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. 

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.

The Modern Art Notes Podcast: Mapplethorpe's XYZ

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “‘X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

LACMA installed the three portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. Salvesen, who organized the installation, hung the three portfolios in staggered horizontal rows on dark red walls. The installation is LACMA’s first presentation of Mapplethorpe’s work since LACMA, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute jointly purchased Mapplethorpe’s art and archive, including over 1,900 editioned prints, more than 1,000 non-editioned prints, 200 unique mixed-media objects, over 160 Polaroids, 120,000 negatives and related archival material. The museums are planning a major retrospective for 2016.

Salvesen is the head of LACMA’s photography department. Previously she was the director and chief curator of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. She has curated exhibitions of Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, Harry Callahan, Danny Lyon and a group exhibition re-examining the landmark “The New Topographics” show.

Opie was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2008. Her “Twelve Miles to the Horizon: Sunrises and Sunsets,” is on view at the Long Beach Museum of Art through March 24. She will debut a new series of work at Regen Projects in Los Angeles later this month. Opie is widely considered the foremost synthesizer of Mapplethorpe’s work: Not only has Opie also focused her lens on leather and SM communities as did Mapplethorpe, but she shares his interest in portraiture and composition. In 1999 Opie made a series of seven photographs titled the “O Portfolio,” a response to Mapplethorpe’s “X Portfolio.”

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the program.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

LACMA installed the three portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. Salvesen, who organized the installation, hung the three portfolios in staggered horizontal rows on dark red walls. 

No artist has more thoughtfully mined Mapplethorpe’s oeuvre than Cathy Opie. Just as Mapplethorpe considered and re-considered self-portraiture, so too has Opie. This is a detail from an early Opie self-portrait: Bo from the series “Being and Having” (1991). In 2006 I wrote this about where some of Opie’s work comes from.

Opie was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2008. Her “Twelve Miles to the Horizon: Sunrises and Sunsets,” is on view at the Long Beach Museum of Art through March 24. She will debut a new series of work at Regen Projects in Los Angeles later this month. Opie is widely considered the foremost synthesizer of Mapplethorpe’s work: Not only has Opie also focused her lens on leather and SM communities as did Mapplethorpe, but she shares his interest in portraiture and composition. 

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

This is Mapplethorpe’s Daniel Speight, N.Y.C. (1981), which is in the “Z Portfolio.” It’s a striking example of the care Mapplethorpe took in lighting his X, Y and Z Portfolio subjects. Mapplethorpe’s attention to lighting — and what influenced it — is much-discussed on this week’s MAN Podcast.

LACMA installed the three Mapplethorpe portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. 

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

This JPEG is a detail from Mapplethorpe’s Daniel, N.Y.C. (1980), which is in the “Z Portfolio.” It’s a striking example of the care Mapplethorpe took in lighting his X, Y and Z Portfolio subjects. Mapplethorpe’s attention to lighting — and what influenced it — is much-discussed on this week’s MAN Podcast.

LACMA installed the three Mapplethorpe portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. 

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.

LACMA installed the three portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. Salvesen, who organized the installation, hung the three portfolios in staggered horizontal rows on dark red walls. 

This picture isn’t in the LACMA show. In 2004 Opie curated a show from the Mapplethorpe Foundation holdings for the Marc Selwyn Gallery in Los Angeles. It’s a detail from Mapplethorpe’s 1984 portrait of painter Alice Neel. Opie and I discussed this work and the relationships between works in her 2004 show and the X, Y, and Z Portfolios on this week’s program.

Opie was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2008. Her “Twelve Miles to the Horizon: Sunrises and Sunsets,” is on view at the Long Beach Museum of Art through March 24. She will debut a new series of work at Regen Projects in Los Angeles later this month. Opie is widely considered the foremost synthesizer of Mapplethorpe’s work: Not only has Opie also focused her lens on leather and SM communities as did Mapplethorpe, but she shares his interest in portraiture and composition. In 1999 Opie made a series of seven photographs titled the ‘O Portfolio,’ a response to Mapplethorpe’s ‘X Portfolio.’

Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.